Page 33 of Ink

“Then get your own woman,” Echo grumbled.

Onyx shook his head. “Not anytime soon.”

I found myself hoping that Matteo’s friend had just tempted fate.

12

INK

Isent a text to King as I jogged downstairs to the lounge. Rafa’s call had been shitty timing. Although, twenty minutes earlier would have been even worse. But no matter how much I would have preferred to spend the rest of my day worshipping my woman’s naked body, I wanted this crap dealt with.

Ace met me at the door to King’s office and lifted his chin in greeting. “Found the bookie,” he said as we walked inside.

“So you know who he owes?” I assumed.

“Yeah. Guessing you talked to Rafa?”

I nodded.

King sat at his desk with Blaze sitting in a chair next to it. Wizard and Kevlar were at the conference table with a few of our enforcers, while Ash and Echo were talking in the small sitting area on the other side of the room.

“No identity on the pro, yet?” Blaze asked.

Shaking my head, I moved to stand against the wall, too restless to take a seat. “But he got us something else.”

“Uncle’s location,” King stated.

“Yup.” After confirming, I waited silently, knowing that King would give the orders when he was ready.

After some contemplation, he looked over at Ash. “Got anything?”

“I can put him away. Permanently.”

“You’re one hundred percent?” King pressed.

Ash jerked his chin up and down. “Got enough to get him locked up till he’s dead and buried.”

Picking up on their conversation, I frowned. “You want to hand him over to the police?”

“It’s the fastest way to untangle the legal shit,” Ash explained. “Going to prison voids the agreement between him and Annika’s parents, as well as the parameters for guardianship over her trust. If Alec disappears, she’ll have to wait until he’s legally declared dead. Since she’s an adult, guardian abandonment no longer applies. Or she’ll spend who fucking knows how long gathering all the evidence of his actions while trying to navigate a court system that moves about as fast as a fucking inchworm.”

“I have some of it,” Wizard interjected. “But the money trail has been a nightmare for Ace and me to document since the bookie is a dinosaur, and all the transactions were done in cash with handwritten receipts.”

“Might be a dinosaur, but you gotta admit that it kept him off our radar for longer than it would have taken with anyone with a digital presence,” Ace reminded him.

I ignored them, still stuck on the fact that King hadn’t given me the green light to put Annika’s uncle in an urn. “Am I hearing you right, Prez?” I growled. “You want me to stand the fuck down on this?”

Despite my efforts to stay calm, Cerberus picked up on my tone and lifted his head from where he lay near King’s desk. He rumbled a low warning in his chest.

King’s steely gaze told me I was on thin ice, so I shut my mouth and silently fumed.

“Not stand down, Ink,” he finally replied. “Teach him a lesson but keep him breathing.”

“Breathing,” I echoed.

“Know you want to end him, Ink,” Blaze spoke up. “I get it. Anyone with an old lady understands. But if you can clear out that cloud of fury for a bit, you’ll see that this is what’s best for your woman.”

I didn’t want to be logical. I wanted the threat eliminated. Preferably through extremely painful methods. But when I’d patched, I hadn’t done it so I had an army of bloodthirsty, lethal cohorts at my back. I’d joined a brotherhood, and real loyalty also meant forcing each other to see reason when one of us was spiraling out of control.

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